Emma Pallant-Browne
IRONMAN 70.3® Mallorca
Emma's headline numbers
Emma's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Emma took a calculated risk with her fuel strategy on the bike, by only carrying one bottle loaded with PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix from the start to avoid carrying too much fluid - and therefore weight - up the long climb early in the bike course. Unfortunately, this didn’t pay off as she missed a bottle of isotonic drink that she planned to pick up at the aid station, and had no spare Gels or Chews to top up with. In an attempt to catch up on her low bike intake of just under 40g/h, Emma did have a PF 30 Gel in T2. She doesn’t normally do this and it wasn’t enough to mitigate her crashing energy levels, and by the third lap of the run she was struggling to keep focus. In future races, Emma should consider carrying some spare carbs, which she could do by fitting an extra bottle to her bike and using some PF 300 Flow Gel.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Emma’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreSimilar to her fueling strategy, the calculated risk to carry less weight early on the bike also affected Emma’s hydration availability. After a faulty bottle pick-up at around 45 km on the bike, which meant she could only get a couple of mouthfuls before having to discard the bottle, Emma wasn’t able to collect any more fluids. As soon as she hit the run, she set about hitting every aid station to get some cups of water and isotonic drink. This helped her limit the extent of dehydration slightly, but as temperatures rose throughout the run, she certainly started to suffer and felt very thirsty after the race. At the risk of repeating the fueling advice, carrying an additional bottle of water with some electrolytes (like PH 1000) will certainly have helped Emma prevent these symptoms, especially as she has a high sweat rate.
How Emma hit her numbers
Here's everything that Emma ate and drank on the day...
Emma's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Emma
PF&HEmma's full stats
Data Confidence?
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands flavours quantities plausible estimations of volumes). However there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.